


Rotten Lace

by GretchenSinister



Series: My Top 3 Rise of the Guardians Rarepair Fics [2]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-30 04:43:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20808734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "So what the heck does that mean? Jamie believes in Pitch so he should be able to see him. Yet he doesn’t believe in him through fear like Pitch intended. So Jamie could be proving Pitch that there’s other ways for him to be acknowledged, that he doesn’t have to be alone even if people aren’t afraid of him. That although the faith in guardians is restored, he can still be believing in.So what I’m basically asking for is some sort of curious love-hate friendship between the Boogeyman and Jamie which then develops to be something more. It can be a romance too but in that case I would like it to happen over time and for Jamie to age up. If you decide to go with the romance then please no non-con or dub-con."Jamie’s touch has a strange effect on Pitch and his appearance, and it’s only gotten more dramatic over the years. But that’s not only why he keeps coming back. Intense hand-holding and things unspoken!





	Rotten Lace

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 4/26/2014.

“I hate what you do to me,” Pitch says softly.  
  
“Do you?” Jamie presses his thumbs lightly into the palms of Pitch’s hands.   
  
“How could I not?” Pitch asks, but makes no move to remove his hands from the cradles of Jamie’s palms.  
  
Jamie’s never sure what to say to this, so he remains silent now, as usual. Moments with Pitch are delicate as rotten lace, and they’ve been that way for more than ten years now. Instead, he looks at him, silent, trying to understand what he’s seeing.  
  
Hands in Jamie’s, Pitch’s skin looks brown rather than grey, and he’s shorter than he usually looks. His shoulders are a little broader, his jaw a little squarer. He’s got more muscle mass. But only when his hands are in Jamie’s. It all goes away when he lets go.   
  
Jamie wonders if other skin-to-skin contact would maintain the change. He wonders how to bring it up.   
  


* * *

  
  
The change wasn’t always so drastic. When he was a kid, all that first accidental contact had brought about was a slight shift in skin color. That slight shift, and Pitch’s absolute stillness, for maybe a dozen heartbeats, before he pulled back and fled into the shadows.  
  


* * *

  
  
“I’ve told you before,” Pitch says. “This isn’t right. You should have sent me away years ago.”  
  
“I never sent anyone away,” Jamie says.  
  
Pitch’s mouth tightens. “It’s not their nature to stay. I told you that before, too.”  
  
“You told me they didn’t need me.”  
  
“They don’t.” Pitch presses the backs of his hands against Jamie’s palms.  
  
Pitch speaks to wound by instinct, but the barbs only hit scars now. Jamie thinks he’s learned to hear what’s in Pitch’s silences, the things he can’t say aloud. _I need you. Tell me I’m real. Show me I’m real._  
  
“I only regret in these moments,” Pitch says.  
  
“But not the moments?”  
  
Pitch shakes his head. “I do not otherwise think clearly enough to regret.” He pauses. “My clearer thoughts don’t only lead to regret. In some ways they are a comfort. To remember, like images in cracked mirrors, when I’m alone.”  
  
Jamie traces circles on Pitch’s palms, and Pitch closes his eyes, his mouth relaxing. Questions too often lead to empty rooms, but Jamie has to ask. “If you can’t think clearly when you’re alone, how do you know to come back?”  
  
“How does a moth know to batter itself against a lamp?”  
  
“And?”  
  
“And I wish you were afraid of me, Jamie. Everything would be simpler then. I wouldn’t know the burden I carry. The thankless duty I must perform as recompense.”  
  
_Recompense for what?_ Jamie wants to ask, but doesn’t, yet, for fear of tearing the lace.  
  
“But you’d be alone.”  
  
“Loneliness is a simple burden. A single wound. It has its inherent freedom.”  
  
“You don’t have to be alone,” Jamie says, and Pitch’s eyes snap open, and for a moment his gaze meets Jamie’s, eyes huge and vulnerable, before something within him shutters them again.  
  
“You don’t mean that,” Pitch says  
  
“How can I prove that I do?”  
  
“You can’t. You won’t.”  
  
“I can. I will.” Jamie leans forward and kisses the corner of Pitch’s mouth. Pitch turns to kiss back, and the lace tears.  
  
Their kiss is slow and hesitant, becoming sweeter by the second, but Pitch pulls away after only a few moments. “You mustn’t,” he tells Jamie, his voice hoarse and broken. “You mustn’t.”  
  
“Why not?”  
  
Pitch looks away. “Because no matter who I look like now…I’m still Pitch. Your touch can’t change that. Don’t you dare think it can!” He pulls his hands away and stands, looming up impossibly thin and tall and spectral.  
  
Jamie captures one of his hands with both his own, and the man from before appears again. “I know that. But I don’t know who you look like now. I don’t know who else you are other than Pitch. I just believe in you. Even now.”  
  


* * *

  
  
One night, long after the change has ceased to occur with Jamie’s touch, Pitch lifts charcoal lips from Jamie’s neck and whispers: “Kozmotis Pitchiner.”  
  
Jamie holds him closer when nothing follows. “Pitch,” he whispers back.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> tejoxys said: Whoa! These two are fascinating. Nice work.
> 
> emeraldembers reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
*collapses* Oh my god I knew there had to be a dynamic that would make me ship these two, just one I hadn’t run into yet, and, well.
> 
> THIS IS IT. THIS IS THE ONE. Ohmygosh it’s gorgeous and delicate and touching and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
> 
> This is the best and you are the best and I love you <3.
> 
> bowlingforgerbils said: I am super impressed what you did with this prompt!
> 
> kaza999 said: fffffuUCK I SHIP IT NOW
> 
> he-kindly-stopped-for-me reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
{OKAY CAN I JUST CRY OVER THIS BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF LITERATURE FOR A MINUTE   
This is such a perfect representation of what a ship - any ship - that involves Pitch would be like. A lot of brokenness, a lot of patience and time with very little result and healing. It’s not a perfect fluffy relationship but Jamie is exactly who Pitch needs. He needs someone to accept him for who he is, because there’s no going back from who he is right now. He needs that stability, someone that can put up with who and what he is and persevere against the instinct to run as far away as they possibly can.
> 
> This to me is a perfect representation of a good Pitch relationship that is in a sense, unhealthy, but is good for the parties involved, and friend I am so happy that you have written this absolutely awe-inspiring piece of art}
> 
> yarrayora reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
THE LAST PART THE LAST PART THE LAST PART


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